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Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The Taliban responded scornfully Monday to the formal end of NATO's war in Afghanistan, describing the U.S.-led mission as a "fire of barbarism and cruelty" that had drowned the country "in a pool of blood".

Barbarism and cruelty. Projecting much?

The insurgent group issued the statement in English a day after NATO marked the closure of its combat mission with a low-key ceremony in Kabul, arranged in secret due to the threat of Taliban attack."We consider this step a clear indication of their defeat and disappointment," the Taliban said."America, its invading allies... along with all international arrogant organizations have been handed a clear-cut defeat in this lopsided war."

10,000 civilians have been killed or wounded this year, thanks to the Taliban who were responsible for 75 percent of those casualties.

NATO will remain in Afghanistan, in spite of the end of the war.

On January 1 NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) combat mission will be replaced by a "training and support" mission.

About 12,500 NATO troops will stay on in Afghanistan.

No doubt, the violence will continue until the Taliban regains full control of the country. They said as much in their statement. They plan on fighting

"for the establishment of a pure Islamic system by expelling the remaining invading forces unconditionally" and "continue its Jihad and struggle so long as a single foreigner remains in Afghanistan in a military uniform".

Recently elected President Ashraf Ghani will have his hands full. He claims he's open to peace talks, but the Taliban never has been in the past. They want full Islamic control of the country. They won't settle for anything less.

Monday, December 29, 2014

You can add Aussie male model, Sharky Jama, to the list foreigners who have up and left their homeland to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Jama made his way to Fallujah, Iraq, while a buddy of his, Yusuf Yusuf, ended up in Raqqa, Syria. Yusuf was a university student.

“Mr Jama’s former social media accounts — including one with the username “thelastkhliafat”, a misspelled reference to an Islamic caliphate — have been deleted, but he maintains a Facebook page under a different name in which he offers his perspectives on Islamic State and life under its banners,” according to the newspaper’s online portal.On Jama’s modeling agency profile page, he is reportedly described as a “brown-eyed, black-haired man who stands at 5’11” (180cm) and wears a size 38R suit.”“The materialism displayed in his sample photographs contrasts deeply with his new life and religious views. From his posts and comments, it appears Mr Jama first traveled through Europe after leaving Australia, telling one friend he ‘had to shave’ his beard ‘before crossing borders,’” the newspaper added.

Why? It's beyond comprehension. Though the allure of sex slaves might be a factor for young dudes.

Canadian/Pakistani Tarek Fatah, a liberal Muslim, uploaded the following video where he leads a small group of fellow liberal and secular Muslims in a protest in front of the Metro Conventionn Centre in Toronto against Islamism, Islamist apologists, Sharia law and burqas.

They were protesting:

20,000 + Muslim youth were being [being] brainwashed by the 'Who is who' of the World Islamist Movement.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Egypt has now joined Morocco in banning the just released movie Exodus: Gods and Kings. The reason? Historical inaccuracies, including the fact the movie claims 'Moses and the Jews built the pyramids'. And it's Zionist, to boot, according to Gaber Asfour, Egypt's culture minister. The Ridley Scott epic historical drama stars Christian Bale as Moses who helped 600,000 Israelite slaves escape the clutches of Egyptian Pharoah Ramses.

“This totally contradicts proven historical facts,” Asfour said.“It is a Zionist film,” he said. “It gives a Zionist view of history and contains historical inaccuracies and that’s why we have decided to ban it.”The ban was decided by a committee comprising the head of the supreme council for culture, Mohammed Afifi, the head of the censorship committee and two history professors, Asfour said.

And the parting of the sea scene in this movie- not cool, says Afifi.

Afifi said he took issue with the scene showing the parting of the Red Sea in which Moses – a prophet revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike – is seen holding a “sword” like a warrior, instead of a “stick”. Furthermore, he said, the parting of the Red Sea was explained in the movie as a “tidal phenomenon” rather than a divine miracle.

Muslim Egyptian writer Fatima Naoot, 50, criticized the ritual sacrifice of animals that occurs during Eid Al-Adha every year, and now she's in hot water for "insulting Islam." Back in October she posted on Facebook:

"Happy massacre." " Massacre committed by men over the past 10 centuries and followed by men each year with a smile." "Annual massacre observed because of a nightmare of one (prophet) about his son." "Although the nightmare has passed for the prophet and his son, each year helpless animals pay with their lives the price of this sacred nightmare."

Eid Al-Adha (aka Feast of the Sacrifice) marks the end of the annual Hajj (trek) to Mecca, and commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son at God's behest. Muslims usually sacrifice a cow, or a sheep, goat, camel or buffalo. As many as 10 million animals are slaughtered on Eid,

Naoot, who is Muslim, deleted her posts from Facebook after controversy erupted about them. But a judicial official said on Saturday that she admitted during questioning that she had written them.The 50-year-old columnist denied she had any intention to insult Islam, the official told AFP, adding she had also been charged with "making fun of the right to sacrifice"."It is the price paid by those who carry torches of enlightenment at every age," Naoot wrote on Friday after having been informed of her trial which is due to start on Jan. 28.She said that in October she had posted messages on Facebook to congratulate Muslims for Eid Al-Adha but "urged them to respect the offering and not humiliate it by flooding the ground with animal blood".

One of her "friends" must have ratted her out.

In Egypt, you're not allowed to insult and of the three major state-sanctioned religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Those who have been convicted have received up to 6 months of jail time.

Europe criticised Turkey (rightfully so) for its tanking freedom of the press, so the delusional President Recep Tayyip Erdogan countered by claiming Turkey has the world's "freest" press (not!) and that Europe should tackle the rise in Islamophobia before it starts criticizing his country.

The European Union, which Turkey has been seeking to join for decades, said the media raids ran counter to European values, a criticism already dismissed by Erdogan. On Friday, the President repeated his discontent, with a visibly harsher tone."We are not Europe's scapegoat," Erdogan told a symposium of civil servants. "We are definitely not a country that Europe can point its finger at and scold. Instead of criticising us, Europe should find a solution to increasing racism and Islamophobia."He made reference to an incident in the German city of Dormagen, where ultra nationalists drew Nazi signs on the walls of a mosque construction, according to reports in Turkish local media earlier this week.

First of all, any anti-Muslim rancor that exists today has been birthed by Islamic supremacy and Muslim entitlement. There were no problems with Muslims in the West until the conservative ones started with their demands, and then the violence. Prior to 9/11 hijabs were some exotic garb worn by some Middle Eastern women. Even back in the 1960s many Afghan women wore western clothing, same thing in Egypt, and Iran. All that has changed. As they immigrated to the West and became more religious, the demands started and the refusal to integrate and assimilate.

The remarks also coincided with the release pending trial of a 16-year-old schoolboy who was controversially arrested on charges of insulting Erdogan by accusing him of being the “chief of corruption.”But Erdogan said: “You cannot insult them (his family) like this in any other country. There is no limit to the insults (we receive). You cannot run such headlines in Europe or the U.S.”“Europeans accuse us as if such things never happen in their countries. No one raises their voice when journalists are detained in Europe.”

As for top dog for freedom of the press- according to Reporters Without Borders, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway received that honor in 2013. Turkey ranked 154 out of 179.

Extremist Muslims have been taking center stage in what's supposed to be a secular democratic Malaysia, and the moderates are finally taking a stand.

[snip] An open letter urging a rational discussion on religion signed by 25 former senior servants and addressed to Prime Minister Najib Razak has gained popular support. The group, which came to be known as the “prominent 25,” is petitioning Najib to lead a peaceful dialogue about the application of Islamic laws in Malaysia.The letter raised several issues concerning what they think is the excessive and unfair implementation of the shariah law in many aspects of governance. They questioned why some religious bodies are “asserting authority beyond their jurisdiction,” such as in the issuance of various fatwa that violate the Federal Constitution. They also cited the indifference of authorities over the “rise of supremacist NGOs accusing dissenting voices of being anti-Islam, anti-monarchy and anti-Malay.” And they pointed out how the Sedition Act “hangs as a constant threat to silence anyone with a contrary opinion.”“These developments undermine Malaysia’s commitment to democratic principles and rule of law, breed intolerance and bigotry, and have heightened anxieties over national peace and stability,” they added in the letter.They wanted Najib to “assert his personal leadership” in reviewing the implementation of Islamic laws in the country: “Those who act in the name of Islam through the administration of Islamic law must bear the responsibility of demonstrating that justice is done, and is seen to be done.”In recent years, some hardcore Islamic and nationalist Malay leaders inside Malaysia’s ruling coalition have successfully lobbied the government to act against perceived threats to Islam and the dominance of the Malays in the affairs of the country. Those who opposed or criticized their views are often accused of conspiring to undermine either Islam or the state.

They have support from activists and academics who were ignored or chastised in the past for their criticism of religious intolerance. And support from others who were too fearful to speak out.

After the letter went viral in the cyberspace, other moderate voices were encouraged to speak out against religious and racial discrimination. Ninety-three NGOs declared support for the letter signers. They were joined by the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, which praised the group for drafting the letter. Internet users circulated online petitions using the Twitter hashtags #KamiJuga25 (We are also 25) and “I am #26” to show support for the stand taken by the group of 25, “by standing together in solidarity as #26.”

No response from the government. Yet. But as expected some of the radical elements have piped in.

I wish them luck, because the hardcore Islamists aren't going to give up their fight for supremacy that easily.

Friday, December 26, 2014

Women drivers are terrorists, at least that's what Saudi Arabian authorities seem to think since they sent two women's rights activists to a "terrorism" tribunal after they defied the kingdom's driving ban.

Loujain Hathloul has been detained since December 1 after she tried to drive into the kingdom from neighbouring United Arab Emirates in defiance of a ban.Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which does not allow women to drive.Maysaa Alamoudi, a UAE-based Saudi journalist, arrived at the border to support Ms Hathloul and was also arrested.Activists said the ruling came at a hearing in Al-Ahsa, in the kingdom's Eastern Province.They did not provide full details of the allegations against the pair but said investigations appeared to focus on the women's social media activities rather than their driving."They will transfer her case to the terrorism court," said an activist familiar with Ms Hathloul's case, adding that her lawyer plans to appeal.

According to other activists, it seems the authorities "are intent to basically make an example of the two women."

Because an empowered Muslim woman is obviously a threat.

Hard to believe that in the 21st century there are women who are not allowed to drive.

You don't hear much about Mauritania, the West African former French colony. It's a piss-poor Islamic Republic led by a military junta,that still allows slavery (though now illegal). Other abuses include:

-discrimination against its black population and women.
-child labor
-female genital mutilation (FGM).
-child marriage
-leblouh, the force feeding of young girls to make them obese- a sign of beauty and wealth.

And they love their sharia. They have sentenced a Muslim 30-year-old man, Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed, to death for apostasy, although it sounds more like blasphemy.

Mohamed has been detained since January 2 and pleaded not guilty to the charge when proceedings opened on Tuesday.Mauritania has the death penalty but has not executed anyone since 1987, according to human rights organisation Amnesty International.During the hearing the judge told Mohamed that he was accused of apostasy "for speaking lightly of the Prophet Mohammed" in an article which was published briefly on Mauritanian websites. In it he challenged some of the prophet's actions, the source told AFP.Mohamed explained that it was "not his intention to harm the prophet", the source added.His lawyer asked for leniency as he said his client was repentant but the judge agreed to the prosecutor's request for the death penalty.

Although it is said they rarely enforce strict punishments like death or floggings- and one can only hope it's the case with Mohamed- he's still going to rot in jail for the rest of his life for nothing.

Nigeria's Boko Haram, is as abhorrent as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). ISIS might have taken center stage recently, but Boko Haram is still doing major evil. They're using young girls as suicide bombers. In fact, one 13-year-old claims after her father handed her over to them, she was sent off to Kano (in the north) with a suicide bomb, which she refused to detonate. She was subsequently arrested. And she's not the only young female who has been used by the extremists to carry out suicide bomb attacks.

The girl told a news conference Wednesday night that she saw many people being buried alive at the Boko Haram camp where her father took her in Bauchi state, east of Kano.She said her captors asked if she wanted to go to paradise and, when she said yes, explained she would have to be a suicide bomber."When I was told I would have to die to enter paradise, that I would have to explode a bomb and die, I said I cannot do it," she said.When they threatened to kill her, she allowed them to strap her into a vest primed with explosives, saying "I was afraid to be buried alive."Two other girls detonated their bombs at Kano's textile market on Dec. 10. Police said the attack killed four people and wounded seven, including the girl.

[snip]

Police Superintendent Adenrele Shinaba said the girl was arrested in the hospital with a leg wound. A taxi driver took her to the hospital, and she said she left her suicide vest on the seat. The driver alerted police.

Shinaba said she will remain in custody while investigations continue. He said they had been unable to find her father, who the girl said belongs to Boko Haram

219 of the 276 kidnapped boarding schoolgirls Boko Haram kidnapped are still missing.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Anyone who has the hankering to watch Sony Picture's "The Interview" starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, and can't find a local theater to support freedom of expression, can watch it from the comfort of your own home on YouTube, for $5.99. No worries about being blown up.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Someone wants to know how kids view fat characters in movies, so the National Institute of Health (NIH) is spending over $400,000 to find out.

Children's perceptions of "obesogenic" culture in films, or the promotion of excessive weight gain, is the subject of the $433,577 study being conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The researchers have concluded that children's movies are confusing because they make fun of fat characters, while also promoting unhealthy behaviors like drinking soda and watching television. "Children receive cultural messages about appropriate eating, exercise, and attitudes from a variety of influences, likely including family, friends, schools, religious institutions, and electronic culture (television, movies, and video games)," the grant explains. "One important source of culture in the world for children is children's movies."

Although a Jordanian military warplane was initially reported as having been downed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in northern Syria, it turns out it actually crashed. They did, however, capture the pilot.

"During a mission Wednesday morning conducted by several Jordanian Air Force planes against hideouts of the ISIS terrorist organization in the Raqa region, one of the planes went down and the pilot was taken hostage" by ISIS, state news agency Petra quoted a source from the military's general staff as saying.The official did not say why the plane went down, but both the militants and a monitoring group said it had been shot with an anti-aircraft missile.“Jordan holds the group and its supporters responsible for the safety of the pilot and his life,” the statement added.The U.S. dismissed Wednesday the claim made by ISIS that it had shot down the F-16.“Evidence clearly indicates that ISIL did not down the aircraft as the terrorist organization is claiming,” said U.S. Central Command, the body overseeing the coalition air war over Iraq and Syria.

The U.N.'s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the kidnapping, as if that means anything to ISIS.

“The secretary noted with concern the news of the downing of a Jordanian plane and of its pilot being taken prisoner,” a statement from the United Nations said.“He calls on his captors to treat the pilot in accordance with international humanitarian laws.”

As if that will ever happen. More than likely, the pilot will eventually be killed, if the Jordanians don't give whatever it is ISIS might want in exchange.

ISIS has posted photos of the pilot, and his alleged identity: 1st Lt Maaz al-Kassasbeh, born May 29, 1988.

As for the jihadists' allegation that they downed the plane with a heat-seeking missile- they apparently do have some of those, taken from anti-Bashar al-Assad rebels.

I'm ambivalent when it comes to Rush Limbaugh. He's very smart and often makes some very valid points, but sometimes he's just flat out wrong.

Apparently, Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominated all-round fabulous British black actor Idris Elba of "The Wire" and "Luther" fame, may some day step into the shoes of James Bond, replacing Daniel Craig, the current 007. But Limbaugh doesn't think a black man should play a fictional, mind you, character that was written as a white Scotsman in the Ian Fleming books.

“James Bond is a total concept put together by Ian Fleming. He was white and Scottish. Period. That is who James Bond is, was." “But now [they are] suggesting that the next James Bond should be Idris Elba, a black Briton, rather than a white from Scotland. But that’s not who James Bond is and I know it’s racist to probably point this out.”

It's called creative license. It happens all the time in the film and theatre industry. There's nothing wrong in thinking outside of the box. I was cast once, with the playwrights approval, in the part of a narrator that had initially been written as a male. It was simply switched to female without affecting the integrity of the play. Nowadays, breakdowns for some tv and film roles are often ethnically and gender ambiguous. Whoever is the best for the part gets cast- male or female, black, white, hispanic or asian. I do draw the line when it comes to historical, real life characters. A black King Henry VIII, no, although some theatre companies have color-blind cast those kinds of roles. Which brings me to Limbaugh's ridiculous comparison.

Limbaugh went on to compare the casting to the idea of George Clooney and Kate Hudson starring as Barack and Michelle Obama in a presidential biopic. He also said Hollywood might as well cast Kelsey Grammer as Nelson Mandela the next time a film was made about the South African freedom fighter.

In theatre, whites have often been cast in black and Asian roles, unfair to those minority actors, but if whites can play blacks, asians and hispanics, they should be able to play white roles. As long as they're not based on real people. As far as I know, there is no real James Bond.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

So, I was eager to jump on the 'DPRK hacked Sony' bandwagon; after all, the North Korean's 'dear leader' is pompous and vain enough to not want any film poking fun and ultimately blowing him to pieces being shown to evil capitalist pig Westerners. And if it was an 'inside job', why not just release the info without bringing "The Interview" into the picture. But there are plenty of people who are absolutely convinced that North Korea had nothing to do with the hack, and their theories are worth perusing.

But the weightiest rebuttal of the case against North Korea has come from renowned hacker, DEFCON organizer, and CloudFlare researcher Marc Rogers, who makes a compelling case of his own. Highlights below:

Why the Sony hack is unlikely to be the work of North Korea.
Everyone seems to be eager to pin the blame for the Sony hack on North Korea. However, I think…

The broken English looks deliberately bad and doesn't exhibit any of the classic comprehension mistakes you actually expect to see in "Konglish". i.e it reads to me like an English speaker pretending to be bad at writing English.

[...]

It's clear from the hard-coded paths and passwords in the malware that whoever wrote it had extensive knowledge of Sony's internal architecture and access to key passwords. While it's plausible that an attacker could have built up this knowledge over time and then used it to make the malware, Occam's razor suggests the simpler explanation of an insider. It also fits with the pure revenge tact that this started out as.

Furthermore, "The attackers only latched onto "The Interview" after the media did – the film was never mentioned by GOP right at the start of their campaign. It was only after a few people started speculating in the media that this and the communication from DPRK "might be linked" that suddenly it became linked."

More theories on why so many think the link between North Korea and the Sony hack is bogus, here.

Okay, so I'm not always right, but we still don't know for sure. The whole thing is pretty bizarre.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other conservative politicians there have been coming out with some doozies recently. Women shouldn't laugh in public. Women are not equal to men. Gender equality leads to more suicides. Now Erdogan has said that promoting birth control is "treason".

Erdogan made the comments on Sunday, addressing the bride and groom at the wedding ceremony of the son of businessman Mustafa Kefeli who is one his close allies. He told the newly-weds that using birth control was a betrayal of Turkey’s ambition to make itself a flourishing nation with an expanding young population. “One or two (children) is not enough. To make our nation stronger, we need a more dynamic and younger population. We need this to take Turkey above the level of modern civilizations,” Erdogan said. “In this country, they (opponents) have been engaged in the treason of birth control for years and sought to dry up our generation,” Erdogan said. Erdogan went on to praise marriage and said: “Marriage is a long journey. There are good days and bad days. Good days become more frequent as we share them and bad days finally bring happiness if we are patient.” “One (child) means loneliness, two means rivalry, three means balance and four means abundance. And God takes care of the rest,” he added, in comments reported by the Dogan news agency, which also posted a video of his speech.

74-year-old German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer was allowed to spend 10 days with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria jihadis in ISIS governed areas of Syria and Iraq, and he doesn't paint a very pretty picture, especially regarding the outcome of the war against the Islamic State (IS), at least the way we're handling it now.

After months of negotiations with the militants on internet telephony provider Skype, German journalist Jürgen Todenhöfer, 74, began his journey to ISIS-held territory through Turkey to the Iraq's second largest city of Mosul, which ISIS conquered in June.Todenhöfer - who is planning to publish a summary entitled “10 days in the Islamic State” on Monday - claimed that the group is “much stronger and much more dangerous” than the West realizes.During his time spent in ISIS-held territory, Todenhofer described to German news website Der Tz an atmosphere of “almost ecstatic enthusiasm that I have never encountered in any other warzone,” with “hundreds of willing [foreign] fighters” arriving every day.

Todenhöfer believes airstrikes are pretty much useless in defeating a very strong, determined and dangerous enemy of the Western world.

From his Facebook Page - after his 10 day visit to Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria, he came away with 7 troubling impressions (google translated from German and liberally edited, with comments, by yours truly).

1) the West has dramatically UNDERESTIMATED the risk and threat of ISIS. IS fighters are much smarter and far more dangerous than our leaders give them credit for. In the 'Islamic State', there is an almost noise-like enthusiasm and confidence in victory as I have yet to experience in war zones. The IS fighters are convinced they can move mountains with their totalitarian beliefs and demonstrative brutality. In Mosul, less than 400 IS fighters fought 25,000 highly equipped Iraqi soldiers and militia. The IS has conquered in a few months, a territory that is larger than Great Britain. In comparison Al- Qaeda is a dwarf.

2.) THE INFLUX OF NEW FIGHTERS TO ISIS IS GROWING EVERY DAY. I spent two days in an IS training camp close to the Turkish border. On both days, each time, about 50 fighters from all over the world arrived. Not just young men, who had failed in their home countries. Many successful, enthusiastic young people from the United States, England, Sweden, Russia, France, Germany, etc. One had just passed his State exam a few weeks before and had been admitted to practice law in court. But he would rather fight in the 'Islamic State'.

3.) THE 'ISLAMIC STATE' SEEMS - AS FAR AS I CAN TELL AFTER 10 DAYS ASSESSMENT- LIKE OTHER TOTALITARIAN STATE FUNCTIONING COUNTRIES OF THE REGION. This is especially true in the area of internal security and the social welfare sector- even if it doesn't meet our Western standards, and certainly not mine. The Sunni population in the Iraqi part of the 'Islamic State' now seems unopposed to the new State. Because they prefer it to the previously prevailing discrimination and oppression by the Maliki regime in Baghdad. However, only the Sunnis living in Mosul after the escape of all Christians, Shiites and Yazidis, and countless executions.

4.) THE GOAL OF ISIS IS NOT ONLY THE CONQUEST OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND EVENTUALLY THE REST OF THE WORLD, BUT THE LARGEST 'RELIGIOUS CLEANSING' IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. The IS wants- with the exception of the so-called religions of 'the book' (the "IS Islam", Judaism and Christianity) - to kill all non-believers and apostates and to enslave their women and children. All Shiites, Yazidi, Hindus, atheists and polytheists should die. Hundreds of millions of people are to be eliminated in the course of this religious 'cleaning'.
Also all moderate Muslims who believe in democracy, should be killed. Because they follow human laws over the laws of God from the standpoint of the IS. This also applies to - after a successful conquest - the democratically-minded Muslims in the Western world.

The only chance for 'infidels', to escape the death, is voluntary repentance and voluntary conversion to 'True Islam'. Represented by IS only. And only as long as their countries are not captured.
Jews and Christians are tolerated, but must pay a fixed tax of protection [jizya] of several hundred dollars per year. Muslims have to pay the Zakatsteuer [no translation for that], which may be lower for poor Muslims.

I don't need to stress that there was any agreement between me and the IS in any of these points. And that I have made that very clear countless times. [Not sure what he means by that]

5.) FROM MY PERSPECTIVE, ISIS IS A 1 PERCENT MOVEMENT WITH THE EFFECT OF A NUCLEAR TSUNAMI. The Islam IS is preaching, 99 percent of our world's 1.6 billion Muslims reject. As a Christian who has read the Quran several times, it does not make sense to me, what ISIS is teaching about Islam. I got to know above all a merciful Islam while reading the Koran. 113 of 114 Suras begin with the words: "In the name of Allah, the most gracious and most merciful". I felt none of this mercy with the IS.

6) BOMBS AND MISSILES WILL NOT DEFEAT IS. The city of Mosul, for example, is dominated by IS with about 5,000 fighters. To succeed, you would have to bomb the whole of Mosul and reduce it to rubble, which would kill tens of thousands of civilians. Bombings were and always are terrorist breeding programs in the Middle East. See IS! Also IS is the child of George W. Bush's international illegal Iraq war. [Right, blame Bush]

Only the moderate SUNNI Arabs can stop IS, not the West. They have done it once before in 2007. At the time they destroyed the 'Islamic State in the Iraq (ISI), the predecessor organization of the IS. But the former ISI was much weaker than the current IS. [Good luck getting the Arabs to take control]

The moderate Iraqi Sunnis would oppose the IS but only if they were fully reintegrated into Iraqi society, after they were expelled by the US and Shiite Iraqis in 2003 during the war in Iraq. After that, it does not look at the time. [not sure what that means] Nevertheless, this is the only feasible solution to stop the IS.

In Syria, there are solutions. However, the West would have to correct its totally unrealistic assessment of the situation. It has quite simply gone too far in Syria.

7.) IN THE WEST THERE IS SPECULATION ABOUT TERROR THREATS BY RETURNEE IS FIGHTERS. I can not and will never exclude this risk. Within the 'Islamic State', however, returnees are considered losers "who have not made life in the 'Islamic State'". Therefore, they're probably not the main threat, even though there was a plot by a returnee in Brussels. A greater danger could come from IS sympathizers who have not yet travelled.

No one should down play terrorist threats in Germany. But one should not exaggerate either. After all, in Germany there has never been a German who was killed by Islamists. [not sure if that's true or not] But many German Muslims have been killed by German right-wing extremists. [not sure about that either] Groups such as Pegida provide the facts. The IS, is interested in an escalation between Muslims and non-Muslims in Germany. The IS has confirmed to me several times.

From my point of view this is the biggest threat to world peace since the cold war. [And here's more blam George Bush] We now pay the price for the attack on Iraq by George W. Bush on Iraq, folly barely to none.

According to Amnesty International, Yazidi female Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) sex slaves are committing suicide or attempting to end their lives rather than be subjected to the horrors of rape and servitude.

Who could blame the poor things.

“Many of those held as sexual slaves are children -- girls aged 14, 15 or even younger,” Donatella Rovera, Amnesty’s senior crisis response adviser, said in a statement.Amnesty said that many of the perpetrators are ISIS fighters, but may also include supporters of the group.A 19-year-old named Jilan committed suicide out of fear she would be raped, Amnesty quoted her brother as saying.A girl who was held with her but later escaped confirmed the account, saying: “One day we were given clothes that looked like dance costumes and were told to bathe and wear those clothes. Jilan killed herself in the bathroom.”“She cut her wrists and hanged herself. She was very beautiful; I think she knew she was going to be taken away by a man and that is why she killed herself.”Another former captive told the rights group that she and her sister tried to kill themselves to escape forced marriage, but were stopped from doing so.“We tied... scarves around our necks and pulled away from each other as hard as we could, until I fainted... I could not speak for several days after that,” Wafa, 27, told the rights group.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Remember 52-year-old Brit Muslim convert, former rocker-turned-jihadi wife Sally Jones, aka Sakinah Hussain? The woman who ran off to join her 20-year-old computer hacker-turned-jihadi hubby in Syria who said she wanted to behead Christians? Well, she's back in the news.

According to an investigative report by the British weekly, the Sunday Times, Jones/Hussain is now involved in recruiting women to travel to Syria to marry and bed all the hordes of jihadis fighting over there. Kind of like a Muslim matchmaker of sorts. Guess there aren't enough sex slaves to satisfy the militants' lust.

Posing as a 17-year-old girl Aisha, Jones told her that her "sins would be forgotten."

“At the end of the day if you’re Muslim you gave to get out of ul kufr [the land of the disbelievers] to please Allah if you can [sic],” she unsuspectedly told the Sunday Times in a message.

They initially contacted Jones via Twitter, while she still had her account UmmHussainAlBritani@UmmHussain101. As of now, it's suspended.

Aisha, according to the Times, expressed concerns over the true identity of a certain Abu Abbas al-Lubnani, a name provided by Jones who would set up the meeting in which Aisha would receive money to facilitate the travel of two girls to Turkey.“U have [to] give the bros name to Western Union as the collector. Listen if he’s giving u money to help u make hijrah [holy migration] dw [don’t worry] sis. He needs ur passport pics to check u aint spys or police cos hed get in big trouble if u was so dw ok just meet his brother and get the money,” Jones told the Sunday Times reporters.According to Jones, who said she did not know Lubnani, girls would often receive the money but would never travel.Her remarks mirrored those of Lubnani who according to the Times said: “people send money to girls to make hijrah and they take the money but dont come my sis said.”

As for what life will be like living in the land of Sham? It's "awesome." If you like the subservient life.

“Women dont have careers sis under sharia law . . . We are wives we are expected to look after our men.”"They look after u. U will never want for money again u live a good life here. U need to get married to get a house im just being honest with u but there are loads of men.”

Sunday, December 21, 2014

No stranger to controversy, Eric Zemmour, a French journalist, has been blasted for simply stating a truth: that the "Muslims kept to themselves in the suburbs" and as a result the "French were forced to move out." This has been happening everywhere in Europe where Muslim immigrants congregate. They make it virtually impossible for non-Muslims to live there. This is not racism, this is not Islamophobia, this their choice, it's something they've brought upon themselves by choosingnot to integrate and assimilate.

As a result of his comments during an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he has become persona non grata.

The iTELE channel said late Friday that Zemmour would not be invited back to a chat show he has been appearing in since 2003 following an outcry over his latest remarks.Zemmour, who recently published a best-seller titled “The French Suicide,” is no stranger to polemics and has been convicted of inciting racial hatred.

[snip]

Zemmour is a well-known media commentator and columnist for Le Figaro newspaper who prides himself on his outspoken defiance of what he deems politically correct, woolly liberals.Zemmour’s parents are Jewish Berbers who emigrated from Algeria in the 1950s.France is home to five million Muslims, the largest population in Europe. It also has the largest Jewish diaspora on the continent.The SNJ journalists union hailed the “strong decision” taken by the television channel, a position taken by SOS Racisme, an anti-racism watchdog.

Not a peep on Facebook from my liberal "friends" after two NYPD officers were gunned down with a semi-automatic rifle in cold blood as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn today. After the Michael Brown and Eric Garner verdicts, my Facebook feed was overrun with links to articles and outraged comments about racist cops. Everyone was piping in about the injustice of it all. No, Brown and Garner did not deserve to die, but they were not innocents.

We will never know exactly what went down between Brown and Officer Darren Wilson the day Brown was killed. But we do know Brown had been in trouble before, including strong-arming a store owner after he stole some cigars just prior to his death. We do know what happened the day Garner died. There's video showing what transpired that day, and it's quite obvious the cops should have tended to him as soon as he told them he couldn't breath. But Garner, too, had some prior run-ins with the law. On the other hand, the two murdered officers- 40-year-old Rafael Ramos and 32-year-old Wenjian Liu- were innocents. They were just sitting in their patrol car when gang banger Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, walked up to the window and shot them in the head. It's ironic that after all this criticism of "white cops targeting blacks", Brinsley would choose to kill a Latino and an Asian.

Since he killed himself in the subway shortly after the ambush, we will probably never know what his motive was, other than his posting on the Instagram account of an ex-girlfriend that he was avenging the deaths of Garner and Brown.

“...Putting Wings On Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours...Let’s Take 2 of Theirs.”

He also happened to shoot that "ex" earlier Saturday morning, before making his way to New York.

There are bad cops, but most have dedicated themselves to protect and to serve. I have read many heartwarming stories about cops going out of their way to help those in need.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

It seems that some of the many foreign "Islamic State" fighters who have flocked to Syria are becoming disillusioned and deserting in droves. This is not sitting well with ISIS, so they're executing them. 100 in the latest round. That's 100 returning jihadis their home countries won't have to deal with.

An activist, who was identified by the newspaper as opposed to the Syrian regime and ISIS, confirmed to the FT the execution of the 100 foreign fighters attempting to flee Raqqa, the group’s de facto capital.After being on the run for months, “frustration” began sweeping among the Islamist militants, the daily said.Fighters sense a halt to ISIS’ military progress and are witnessing mounting casualties among their ranks, the report added. “Morale isn’t falling – it’s hit the ground,” an opposition activist from ISIS-controlled areas of in Deir al-Zor told the newspaper.Morale among the fighters was affected by the group’s shift toward governing areas it controls and because of U.S.-led air strikes halting their advances in Syria and Iraq.“Local fighters are frustrated – they feel they’re doing most of the work and the dying … foreign fighters who thought they were on an adventure are now exhausted,” the opposition activist told the daily.

ISIS militants have taken desertion so seriously, they've created a military police force "to crack down on fighters who fail to report for duty.”

The activists said the ISIS “police” had raided the homes of several ISIS fighters and arrested many of them.

They also said ISIS militants reportedly need to carry identification documents to indicate if they are fighters and if they are allocated for a certain mission.

Hoping this will deter more foreign fighters from making the trek to Syria and Iraq, but I'm sure the allure of violence and sex slaves is too strong. Better they're killed over there, I suppose.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights 230 members of the Shaitat tribe were discovered in a mass grave in the Deir Ezzor region of Syria, victims of the Islamic State. So far, since the summer, over 900 have been killed.

The Britain-based group said it had "learned from trusted sources that more than 230 bodies have been found in a mass grave in the desert near Al-Kashkiyeh in the east of Deir Ezzor". The "vast majority" were civilians, many of them executed in cold blood after the tribe rose up against the Islamic State after it had driven out rival jihadists and rebels from the area. [snip]Hundreds more members of the Shaitat tribe are still missing, said the Observatory, which relies on a large network of activists, doctors and military sources on all sides of the Syrian conflict for its reports. The tribespeople discovered the grave as they returned to their villages from months of displacement after losing their battle against IS.

They have been allowed to return only after agreeing to respect an IS-imposed curfew, as well as a prohibition on gatherings and weapons.

Friday, December 19, 2014

According to CNN'S Brian Stetler, the anonymous hackers emailed Sony Pictures congratulating them on caving, and are now basically holding them hostage. Since Sony pulled their film "The Interview", the hackers will no longer release more breached data. That is, as long as they behave and cooperate- which means removing any snippets of the film from the Internet. So we can assume Sony will begin sweeping YouTube and forcing people to remove anything related to the film. No more snippets. The leaked death scene will be gone soon.

Part of the email:

It is very wise that you have made a decision to cancel the release of the interview. It'll be very useful for you......We still have you sensitive and private data. We ensure the security of your data, unless you make additional trouble.[snip]Now we want you never let the movie released, distributed or leaked in any form of, for instance, DVD or piracy.And we want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting them immediately.

Sony Pictures has set a terrible precedent by pulling its Kim Jong-un comedy "The Interview." What next? Are we going to cave every time we're threatened by a bunch of hackers/terrorists? This kind of capitulation will ultimately lead to the demise of freedom of expression.

This was apparently a stupid movie, but in a free country I should have the right to waste my money on a silly film if I so choose, but in this case I won't.

Are we now going to censor ourselves with all creative endeavours because we're afraid we'll ruffle the feathers of commies and Islamic radicals. I can see it now- no more films about the Middle east, either.

We know North Korea was behind the Sony hack, they've been bitching about the release for a long time. They called it an "act of war" back in June. Who else would have a vested interest in preventing its release? And what hypocrisy. This was simply a Hollywood-made movie, North Korea has created state-sponsored propaganda films showing the bombing of the White House, and calling for nuking the Yankees.

And the caving has already started. Paramount Pictures just canceled the showing of "Team America- World Police." The film featured Kim Jong-un's equally evil dad Kim Jong-il.

At least three movie theaters that planned to show "Team America" say Paramount Pictures has canceled the 2004 comedy from public screening.

"This was a weird coincidence for us," Dave Huffman, director of Marketing at Cleveland Cinemas, which operates the Capitol Theatre, told the Huffington Post. "We had the film booked all the way back in October as part of our midnight cult series and it was scheduled to play June 20, 2015. We got an email shortly after 1 p.m saying the film was pulled from release."

Some theaters, like the Alamo Drafthouse, had planned to show "Team America" in the wake of Sony canceling "The Interview."

Thursday, December 18, 2014

In their quest for domination, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorists continue to leave destruction and death in their wake. The latest act of barbarism in Iraq- the beheading of over 150 women (some pregnant) in retaliation for refusing to marry the jihadis.

Islamic State militants have reportedly beheaded at least 150 women, some of them pregnant, for refusing to marry them.Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights, in a statement released, said that the women in the western Iraqi province of Al-Anbar were attacked by the Islamic State terrorists and were later buried in mass graves in Fallujah."At least 150 females, including pregnant women, were executed in Fallujah by a militant named Abu Anas Al-Libi after they refused to accept jihad marriage," the statement said.Last month, at least 50 men, women and children were executed by the IS members in a tribe massacre in the village of Ras al-Maa.According to reports, the militants lined them up and shot them dead in public.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

I'm a little confused over Pakistan's stance on the death penalty after reading an article on Al Arabiya.

Pakistan announced Wednesday it will end its moratorium on the death penalty in terror-related cases, the prime minister’s office said a day after Taliban militants killed 141 students and school staff in the country's bloodiest ever terror attack.

“The prime minister has approved abolishment of moratorium on the execution of death penalty in terrorism-related cases,” an official from Sharif’s office said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Hanging remains on the Pakistani statute book and judges continue to pass the death sentence, but a de facto moratorium on civilian executions has been in place since 2008.

So, people who have been sentenced to death for blasphemy and adultery won't actually be executed? Just rot away in prison, or executed by radical Islamist vigilantes?

Apparently, the moratorium was also applicable to terrorists, until now. It took the revenge massacre of a bunch of innocent kids by the Pakistani Taliban to change that.

And it seems the Afghan Taliban are taking the moral high ground regarding the school massacre by their Pakistani brethren Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has always condemned the killing of children and innocent people at every juncture," the Afghan Taliban, which often target civilians, said in a statement released late Tuesday, according to Agence France-Presse.

"The intentional killing of innocent people, women and children goes against the principles of Islam and every Islamic government and movement must adhere to this fundamental essence,” the statement read.

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the official name of the Taliban) expresses its condolences over the incident and mourns with the families of killed children," it added.

Muslims condemn the killing of school kids and innocent people, any yet it happens all the time.

MEMRI has just posted a video of audio clips of Ismail Al-Wahwah (from the Aussie chapter of the extremist Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir) spewing anti-U.S. and anti-Europe rhetoric.

"Our true conflict is with Europe and the US. They are the enemy." "Your civilization will pay the price" for defiling our women's honor.

He blames all the problems in the Middle East (and the exodus of Arabs) on the U.S. and Western policies- the poverty, lack of oil and resources, is our fault. We stole it from them, and that's why they moved to the West.

When asked, he refuses to condemn ISIS. That's because he's a supporter. Back in October, he told a group of people that the world deserves a Caliphate.

Here's a video of several of the alleged Aussie Cafe Lindt hostages sharing the demands of Sheikh Man Haron Monis: They claimed all he wanted was an ISIS flag, a phone call from Prime Minister Tony Abbott on live media, and that all media outlets should be informed that "this is an attack on Australia by the Islamic State." The video is similar to the Islamic State propaganda videos of John Cantlie, the journalist being held hostage in Syria, slamming the U.K. government for not giving in to the demands of the terrorists.

A Muslim college student, who also happens to be politically conservative/libertarian, has been targeted by his liberal, pc college mates for poking fun at their progressiveness.

Omar Mahmood, a junior majoring in literature and anthropology at the University of Michigan, lost his job as a writer for the main campus newspaper and saw his front door tattooed with angry and profane messages after he wrote a satirical column dubbed "Do the Left Thing" for another publication. Written as parody, the column sought to poke fun at people who constantly perceive “microaggressions” -- a new term for small racial or ethnically-driven snubs. After falling down, the fictional character in Mahmood's column takes offense when a white male student offers a hand.“He offered his hand to help me up, and I thought to myself how this might be a manifestation of the patriarchy patronizing me,” Mahmood wrote in the piece, which can be read at The College Fix, which first reported Mahmood’s situation.“These progressive students attacked Omar because they felt that he, as a Muslim, cannot also be a conservative.”

Offended that a Muslim would dare lampoon their social justice efforts, they got pretty nasty.

On Friday night, according to Mahmood, people attacked his dorm room door, egging it and leaving copies of his satirical article with notes on the backs including “Shut the f--- up!” and “You scum embarrass us” and “DO YOU EVEN GO HERE?! LEAVE!!” along with various others, including an image of a creature with horns and another one of him with his eyes crossed out.

The Islamic State continues to recruit a multi-ethnic group of animals to join their fight in Syria and Iraq. 300 or so Chinese jihadis are allegedly fighting in Iraq and Syria. At least according to Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times. China has its own Muslim extremist troubles in the Xinjiang region of the country, but obviously not concerned enough to join the coalition of nations fighting the Islamic State of Iraq in Syria in the Middle East.

“According to information from various sources, including security officers from Iraq’s Kurdish region, Syria and Lebanon, around 300 Chinese extremists are fighting with ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the Global Times reported.

[snip]

Chinese members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) are travelling to Syria via Turkey to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS, the Global Times, a tabloid run by China’s ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily, said.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

In a nationwide raid, 23 people affiliated with Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen have been arrested. Gulen- who is now based in the U.S.- was a former ally-turned-critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In what they termed "anti-terrorism" the police raided media outlets, including a TV station and the Anatolia news agency. There were also attempts to raid the Zaman Daily, but crowds prevented that from happening. Some of those detained were an executive, producers and directors of the TV station, and employees of the state-run Anatolia news agency. This seems to be payback for investigations into a mega bribery and corruption scandal involving members of Erdogan's administration.

The raids on Zaman newspaper and Samanyolu television marked an escalation of Erdogan's battle with former ally Gulen, with whom he has been in open conflict since a graft investigation targeting Erdogan's inner circle emerged a year ago."The free press cannot be silenced," a crowd chanted at the offices of Zaman as its editor Ekrem Dumanli made a speech defiantly challenging police to detain him, while elsewhere in Istanbul the chairman of Samanyolu TV was being detained."This is a shameful sight for Turkey," Samanyolu TV group chairman Hidayet Karaca told reporters just before he himself was held."Sadly in 21st Century Turkey this is the treatment they dish out to a media group with tens of television and radio stations, internet media and magazines."Media reports said arrest warrants had been issued for 32 people. State broadcaster TRT Haber said 23 people had been detained in raids across EU-candidate Turkey, including two former police chiefs. As well as Karaca, a television producer, a director and scriptwriters were held.

Definitely not for the faint of heart or easily offended, it can get pretty offensive.

I posted his parody of Carly Rae Jepson's wildly popular "Call Me Maybe" where he pokes fun of Barack Obama during his 2012 campaign, along with a little information on this Detroit singer who lampoons just about everyone.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

24-year-old Mehdi Masroor Biswas, who is thought to be the popular Pro-ISIS jihadi Tweeter @ShamiWitness has been arrested by police at his apartment in a shishi area of Bangalore, India.

Mehdi had been working as an executive for an Indian food conglomerate during the day, and inciting violence on Twitter at night. He was outed by Britain's Channel 4 News.

Tweets from @ShamiWitness contained jihadist propaganda as well as information for would-be recruits and messages praising fallen fighters as martyrs. Police in Bangalore raided his house in an upscale suburb early Saturday and seized his mobile phone, laptop and other documents for evidence. “On the basis of credible intelligence inputs ... we have apprehended Mehdi Masroor Biswas from his rented oneroom apartment,” police director general L.R. Pachuau said at a news conference. “He has confessed to the fact that he was operating Shami Witness Twitter account for the last many years ... he used to work in the office in the day and became active on the Internet late at night,” he said. India’s moderate population of 150 million Muslims have not often been drawn into sectarian conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere. However, an Indian student was recently charged with terror- related offences after he returned home from Iraq where he is alleged to have worked for the jihadists.

[snip]

Biswas was “particularly close to English speaking terrorists” and had become a source of “incitement and information” for youngsters trying to join the IS group. “Through his social media propaganda, he abetted IS in its agenda to wage war against the Asiatic powers,” Pachuau said. A preliminary case of abetting war against the state has been registered against Biswas.

Other jihadi ISIS Tweeters are probably crawling under rocks about now.

In so-called moderate Indonesia, Meidyatama Suryodiningrat- the editor of The Jakarta Post (an English-language newspaper)- could spend 5 years in jail for blasphemy. Why? Because a cartoon the newspaper published this past July offended the hard-line Islamists.

The cartoon- quite obviously critical of ISIS- shows a bunch of armed jihadists, one of whom is pointing a gun at the head of a blindfolded man kneeling next to other blindfolded men (we've all seen those videos and photos), and another one hoisting a black flag with a picture of a skull and crossbones with "There is no God but Allah" written in Arabic.

An apology on the front page wasn't enough to appease the easily offended..

Following an outcry from Islamic groups, the Jakarta Post issued a front-page apology and retracted the cartoon five days later, insisting it was meant to “critique the use of religious symbols” and as a “reproach” to ISIS, a brutal Islamist group which holds vast swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq.

A group called the Jakarta Muslim Preachers Corps filed a complaint to the police and on Friday, Jakarta police spokesman Rikwanto, who goes by one name, said that Suryodiningrat had been officially named a suspect the previous day.

“The status of MS has been upgraded to suspect,” said the spokesman, using the editor’s initials, the usual practice in criminal cases in Indonesia.

It's proof that there are more radical Muslims out there than people would like to admit. Anyone who supports a violent, terrorist group like ISIS is one step from being a terrorist themselves.

Even though Afghanistan has the barbaric Taliban still vying for Islamic rule over the country it once governed, it's the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) which is inspiring young men (and a few women.)

A quiet student at Kabul University, 25-year-old Abdul Rahim has a dream: to join Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Syria and fight for the establishment of a global caliphate - a new, alarming form of radicalism in war-weary Afghanistan.“When hundreds of foreigners, both men and women, leave their comfortable lives and embrace Daish, then why not us?” he asked, using a word for Islamic State common in the region.Although ISIS is not believed to have operations in Afghanistan, its influence is growing in a country already mired in daily bombings and attacks by Taliban insurgents.With most foreign combat troops leaving the country by the end of the year, there is growing uncertainty over what direction Afghanistan will take, with the emergence of ISIS ideology adding a new risk.

A few dozen students have set up an underground group a few months after ISIS started making inroads into Central and South Asia this year.

Several hardline insurgent groups in tribal areas between Afghanistan and Pakistan have pledged allegiance to ISIS, propaganda leaflets have been distributed and some local commanders are said to have met ISIS members.

But the formation of the clandestine student group is the clearest indication yet that ISIS ideas are taking hold more broadly.

“Several students who are close to us went to Syria to join our brothers for a holy cause,” said student Gul Rahman, holding a mobile phone with ISIS’s black flag logo on the screen.

The students interviewed want to join the fight in Syria, not bring the fight to Afghanistan. But who knows. And the radicalization process has already begun.

Friday, December 12, 2014

This one is hilarious. I think there's a longer version, but it's a compilation of video clips with the dictator's head photoshopped onto various movie and cartoon characters. Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama have supporting roles. Funny stuff.

Apparently, Kim Jong-un was terribly offended and wanted it removed. The Young Turks have a little information about the video and the cry-baby's fury at the upcoming Seth Rogan/James Franco movie "The Interview" which is about an attempted assassination of the dictator, calling it an act of war.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

UPDATE: #ShamiWitness has been fully outed by Twitter sleuths. He's allegedly Mehdi Masroor Biswas, and some claim he might actually be a student not an executive. But he's closed his Linked-In and Facebook accounts, in addition to his Twitter account. Many other pro-ISIS jihadis are running scared and shutting down their accounts as well. I also erroneously mentioned he was married with kids. The familial obligations were actually his parents. I think.

There are a slew of pro-Islamic State Twitter accounts with thousands of followers. Many are supporters, some are actually jihadis fighting in Syria and Iraq. Those accounts that happen to get suspended usually resurface very quickly. One popular account with foreign jihadis- Shami Witness- had 17,700 followers and was considered to be one of most influential pro-ISIS accounts on Twitter. But Shami Witness is no more. A Channel 4 News investigation made sure of that. They discovered who was posting anonymously as Shami Witness and it turns out he was an executive with a business conglomerate based in Bangalore, India. He is Indian. His name is Mehdi. Married with kids. Obviously educated.

He spent his mornings, afternoons and evenings sending thousands of tweets of propaganda about the Islamic State militant group, acting as the leading conduit of information between jihadis, supporters, and recruits.[snip]Two thirds of all foreign fighters on Twitter followed him. When a fighter's Twitter account is suspended, he often promoted the new one and urged people to follow it.He spoke to British jihadis regularly, before they leave to join the Islamic State, after they arrived, and if they died he praised them as martyrs.

Channel 4 has kindly decided not to identify him. Lucky Mehdi. He told them his life would be in danger. If it weren't for familial responsibilities he would have joined ISIS.

He also has a Facebook page, with a different persona.

On his Facebook pages he regularly shares jokes, funny images and talks about superhero movies, posting pictures of pizza dinners with friends, and Hawaiian parties at work.

He actually removed his own Twitter account after he was outed, but when it was in full swing he joined many other pro-ISIS Twitterers in posting videos of the beheadings of innocent foreigners:

Using the @ShamiWitness account he five times tweeted the video of the execution of US aid worker Peter Kassig, and dozens of Syrian soldiers within minutes of it being uploaded to the internet."May allah guide, protect, strengthen and expand the Islamic State ... Islamic State brought peace, autonomy, zero corruption, low crime-rate", he wrote on Twitter in November.

[snip]

And he said to British fighter Mehdi Hassan "May Allah give you brothers decisive victory there". Hassan later died fighting in Kobane.

[snip]

ShamiWitness seemed to express glee at the deaths and rapes of Kurdish fighters on Twitter, but later said that this comment was taken out of context.He had written and later deleted the tweet where he said: "@ArjDnn I should thank PKK for recruiting female fighters, specially the ones caught alive by rebels. lol".

And yet on Facebook, he was a vocal advocate against rape.

I'm sure Mehdi/Shami Witness, like all the others, will reincarnate under a different Twitter account in no time. Unless the Indian government was informed and starts keeping tabs on him.

Just watched a video from a North Korean Youtube propaganda channel that I subscribe to. Always entertaining, on so many levels- from the overwrought narrators to the pro-DPRK versus anti-DPRK comments- and I noticed a slew of Kim Jong-un parodies. So, for your entertainment, I will start posting some.

I'll start with this Gangnam Style parody. The original by a South Korean pop star, became a global hit after the video went viral, several years back.

While a conservative Muslim male in places like Pakistan can have multiple wives of his choosing, the woman usually never has that same choice of whom to wed. And if she does, she might wind up dead. Many a young couple who have married for love are subject to "honour" killings. It happens all the time. The couple run off but are eventually tracked down and murdered. In one recent case, it took 3 decades to catch up to a woman who married for love after her first arranged-marriage husband passed away. After thirty or so years, her son from that first marriage, with her former brother-in-law in tow, butchered his mother along with her 2nd husband and four of their kids. With an ax. Because marrying another man, for love, dishonoured him.

The couple’s 13-year-old daughter was critically injured in the attack on Tuesday night and is fighting for her life in hospital, while four other children escaped unharmed. “Ghulam Fatima, who was in her sixties, had married the man of her choice after her husband died and they moved to Punjab from Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa after threats from Fatima’s former inlaws,” Allah Ditta, a local police official told AFP. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is a conservative northwestern province where it is frowned upon for a woman to marry for a second time, especially someone of her own choosing.

Allah Ditta added that Fatima’s former inlaws had been searching for her in vain since she fled her old home, finally tracing her to her house in the Athara Hazari neighbourhood of Jhang city on Monday. Her son and brother-in-law were invited to stay as guests but murdered their hosts a day later. “Her son and his uncle came to her house on Monday and stayed there until Tuesday night when they axed Fatima, her husband and four children to death,” Ditta said. Mian Aslam, a second local police official, confirmed the incident and said Fatima’s son Mohammad remained at large but his uncle Gul Zameen had been arrested.

The brother-in-law has been arrested, her son Mohammad is still on the run.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

A Swiss convert to Islam who went to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), claims he was jailed over there when he changed his mind after two weeks training, and wound up back in Switzerland, has been given only 600 hours of community service. No prison for the dude, as per Attorney General Michael Lauber's ruling.

The 30-year-old recent convert to Islam, from the western Swiss canton of Vaud, had travelled to Syria late last year to join an ISIS training camp.

The man, whose name was not given, told the broadcaster he had been indoctrinated over the Internet.

“I was new to Islam... The videos I saw and the discussions I had online made me feel like I had to go there,” he said.

After two weeks in the training camp however, he asked to leave, only to be jailed by the militant group, which held him for 54 days, RTS reported.

The man, who has been cooperating with authorities and claims to have cut all ties with the jihadist group, was sentenced under a Swiss law against taking part in criminal organizations and under a military law against fighting for a foreign army, according to the report.

No mention of how he wound up back in Switzerland. How long he remained in Syria after the 54 days in jail.

One way the Islamic State (aka ISIS) is filling its coffers is by harvesting and trafficking human organs, with the help of foreign doctors working in hospitals in Mosul, Iraq.

According to a local doctor, organs are removed from dead militants, and kidnapped Christians and Yazidis. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) claims organs are also harvested from those who have been arrested and wounded by ISIS.

It's a very organized system that deals with "networks specialized in trafficking human organs," and-

"...the coordination between all parties involved, including the cooperation of hospitals and other medical institutions in other countries, because the organs must be transported and implanted in a timely manner."

According to a news report from the Times of India, a British pastor claims four Iraqi Christian children were allegedly beheaded after they refused to convert to Islam.

Canon Andrew White, who is known as the 'vicar of Baghdad', told Orthodox Christian Network that the killings happened in a Christian enclave close to Baghdad which has been taken over by ISIS (formerly known as Islamic State).He spoke of how ISIS has "hounded" the Christians out of Iraq, and how "they killed in huge numbers, they chopped their children in half, they chopped their heads off, and they moved north and it was so terrible what happened".

Sunday, December 07, 2014

Saudi Cleric and former head of the Kingdom's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Sheikh Ahmed Bin Qassim al-Ghamdi has revisited his fatwa from several years ago claiming that women were not required to cover their faces or arms. Many in Saudi Arabia wear abaya's/niqabs that cover everything but one's eyes.

It appears he is taking it one step further with another recent fatwa stating that a Muslim woman doesn't need to wear a veil at all:

“Islam doesn’t require women to wear veil.”

Plus they can wear makeup, take selfies, and post them on social media sites like Facebook.

Apparently, a Twitter follower asked if it was okay for Muslim women to post photos of themselves on social media, which prompted his response:

“...there is nothing wrong if a woman showed her face or put make-up.”

He also posted on Twitter that it was only Prophet Mohammed's wives who were supposed to wear the hijab.

Quoting a Moroccan scholar, he said it was preferable but not mandatory.

Saturday, December 06, 2014

Q Society, an anti-Islamic organization/think-tank based in Australia, created 'Hal & Al's Seventy Two Virgins' wine (a sparkling Brut) as a fundraiser of sorts.

Profit from sales are to be used by the organization to combat Islamic extremism, and what they deem as a culture war.

Their website has this to say:

Islam is not just a religion. It is also a political, legal, financial, social and military doctrine which extends to all facets of Muslim life, the cultural and legal landscape of where Muslims live and how to treat non-Muslims. Islam makes it obligatory for observant Muslims to assist in extending the rule of Islam across the world.For too long Islam has enjoyed immunity from necessary analysis, due criticism and debate because of its status as “just a religion.” Unfortunately, if we continue to tolerate Islam without understanding it, Australia as a free, secular democracy will be lost.This approach for criticizing Islam is from the “classical liberal” position, which is embraced by those both on the political left (such as atheists like Bill Maher) and the right. The Q Society affirms in their “Australian Values” statement that they oppose Islam specifically because it conflicts with the liberal values and openminded ideology of modern Australian culture.

Hal & Al (remove the ampersand and you get the meaning) has the following posted on the label:

“Consumption of this Australian wine may prevent you from entering the Islamic Paradise. However, both the Jewish and Christian paradises remain open as alternative…."

“Why is the Gross National Product in most developed countries – I don’t want to name it but in Scandinavian countries and in many other countries – at the highest level on one side [GDP], but the suicide rate is also at the highest level there. Why?”

The premier, who was speaking at a meeting hosted by the women’s branch of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), described “mechanical equality” as something that it is beginning to “destroy the complementary relationship in life.”

“That’s why, since our women are fulfilling that divine mission of keeping humanity alive, then they have the right to rest before and after becoming a mother and spare time for their children. Granting this is not a favor, it is just paying a debt.”